


transgression

by Kirbita22



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2019-06-01
Packaged: 2020-04-05 19:00:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19046455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kirbita22/pseuds/Kirbita22
Summary: She wouldn't trust them so easily, they both know, if she knew what they were; that Ace had settled with human blood in her mouth.Five times Ryan and his daemon broke the taboo, and one time they simply let it be crossed.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> so hey welcome to my drx daemon au. its gonna be very out of wack with canon and characterization bc ive been away for, like, forever, and bc im writing all the scenes im adapting from memory
> 
> so yeah, hi to everyone, im still im drx hell even tho i left and i hope yall are happy -sushi

It happens like this:

Ryan has been curled up in his bed, unmoving, for who knows how long. The house is empty and quiet, with the only sound being the ocassional, heartwrenching whimpers Ace couldn't help but to let out, curled against him in various small and soft forms, easy to hold against his breaking heart.

They have only each other for comfort. Until very, very recently, the two of them liked things that way, most of the time. Ryan was growing up, he thought, and Ace was restless to settle; there was no point to being bothered by his siblings and their nonsense. Ace was much too dignified to spend any time rolling around playing with the other children's daemons- she spent much of her time an owl, because they'd both thought that was a good and mature form to take.

If the presence of his siblings was a bother, the presence of his parents was worse still. His father's eagle pecked at Ace's feathers reproaching as he scolded his son for his behavior. His mother's ermine tried to whisper calming words to her as she does for her child, but neither of them are inclined to listen. They're eager to be by their own, of their own, and grown.

So they had thought, at least, up until that day.

Since that day, the two of them have all but ceased to live altogether. They've lied together in the empty space of the empty house, devoid of purpose, swallowed whole by grief. If the man with the bulldog daemon hadn't come, and if they hadn't been so careless as to talk to each other out loud, the two of them might have wasted away together, until Ace dissolved into nothing and only one corpse remained. 

And yet, they did, and they were, and what they let Ace's hare ears overheard sprung them both to life once more. The last mistake the man and his daemon made. 

It happens like this:

When every nerve and thought in their bodies and minds and hearts turn, all at once, to a pure red hatred, for the first but not the last time, their first instinct is to strike at once.

Ryan reaches for the bow and arrow before he understands himself.

Ace is faster.

The man screams with pain the kind he'd never known before, his daemon howling before she knows what to do: neither of them expected, could never have expecter, never would have prepared for the wolf teeth digging into his leg, tearing visciously at the flesh, blood flowing freely under her fangs.

Dully, in the back of his mind, Ryan and Ace both know this is wrong, the most wrong thing that can ever be done, to cross the taboo that prevents daemons and humans who aren't each other's from touching- and indeed, there is something viscerally, irrevocably wrong about her mouth being buried in the flesh of a stranger, and later they will both shiver and shake with it and crawl close together until the horrid feeling fades; but for now they're full of adrenaline and anger and the need to hurt this man, and anyone and everyone who might be behind him.

And so Ryan, half-aware of the line he has crossed, strains it much, much further and follows his daemon's example by kicking the bulldog hard before she can react and help her human.

The man cries again, pain and anguish and sorrow and love for the half of his soul that another human has maimed; and Ryan thinks, good. Ace digs her teeth further, yanks flesh apart, forces the man to his knees, bites into the flesh of his stomach, rabid.

"You're going to tell me what I ask you." Ryan says, cold and unfeeling, and at the same time, feeling more intensely, more alive, than he had in what seemed like an eternity.

The man laughs weakly and shakes his head.

So Ryan holds the bulldog still and digs an arrow in her side.

Again, twin howls and whimpers of agony. "Stop! Stop! We'll-" the bulldog half-sobs, while the man calls her name in anguish ", we'll tell you! A- all we know!"

That night, Ryan Ceartas and his Ace learn two very important lessons.

One, that the great prohibition that lies deep within everyone's bones and souls isn't actually very powerful at all; that, altough it's a horrible thing to do and experience and cause (and Ryan will later vomit when he thinks about it, and Ace will curl around him with her fur and warmth and imagine what that pain would feel like, inflicted in them instead of the man and his daemon), it can be done. It's something he'd never thought about, because it's the sort of thing you simply don't think about it, but that night, the two of them learned it is a tool in their arsenal.

Two, that it may very well be the single most powerful tool anyone could have.


	2. Chapter 2

After that, days pass in a blur.

Ryan and his Ace dive headfirst into a world of blood, violence and hatred. Taking lives barely registers to them now- it's simply something to be done to the people who deserve it, the people responsible for the tragedy that fell upon them. They get good at it fast.

Sometimes Ryan does it, with an ever increasing arsenal of weapons that do things he might have found horrifying once, but which now are to him useful tools for his craft. Sometimes Ace is faster, her settled form strong and lithe and good at fighting other daemons (mostly dogs) and ending their lives, their humans along with theirs. It's a form that suits them, Ryan thinks as she digs her teeth into a doberman's skull. 

They don't cross that line again, though. It's not a conscious decision they make, they simply don't think about it, because it's just not something you think about, even in the cold red heat of battle. Ryan is good enough at dealing with human adversaries, and Ace is good enough at taking down daemons, and that's all they need to do. The worst tool of all stays locked away, uneeded for the time being.

(At night, curled together in bed with the scent of blood still strong around them, they don't think about what they've done, don't stop to dwell on it at all; but that first night, the feeling of hands and mouth on somebody else, on a soul that isn't theirs, is the hardest thing to keep away.)

This lasts until Las Vegas.

Ryan could have gotten whatever it was he needed from the man with good old fashioned torture, most likely- he gets a good response out of slicing an ear; but he's impatient, and he's angry, and he hates this man with a passion that makes Ace bristle and growl deep from her throath.

The next stab of the knife goes to his daemon. 

They plead, they beg, they say what they know. And for the second time, Ryan is amazed at how quickly a person's defenses, bravado, pride and dignity vanish against this most horrible of all sensations, another human's touch, and slicing into their souls directly. There really is no armor, inside or outside, that can protect from the worst violation to the most intimate and personal part of all a person's being.

Ryan is blinded by fury and righteous anger and seething red hatred, and pays no mind to what the man says. Ace mostly doesn't either; but she's attentive, even in these situations. That is how they notice the girl.

Ryan stops the blade before she can come to harm, all his mind crashing to a halt. For the first time since that first night, he has no idea of what to do; Ace stands very still, more a deer caught in headlights than the wolf she is. The girl and her daemon (a cat standing bristled and terrified on her shoulder) look as much at a loss as they are, but much more desperate, which Ryan will soon learn is a weapon on its own.

From far away, the sound of people making their way to them bolts him awake from the strange and panicked trance the two not-quite children were locked in. He grabs the half-conscious man by the shoulder and makes for the railing of the balcony-

-he shrieks in pain a few steps from the drop, searing, burning, and turns around to see Ace a considerable distance away, desperately struggling to free herself from a tiger daemon, larger than her- the girl- she won't let them get away-

The police near, and Ryan runs back to his soul, who's fighting with all her might, but she was taken by surprise, pinned under the tiger-

The girl realizes what he's about to do a second too late.

He pushes the tiger off himself.

\---

Dario is dead before he hits the ground, because his daemon was too hurt to drag herself with him, and it's a long distance between the balcony and the street below.

While they lay low and wait for the police to let them retrieve their vehicle, Ryan and Ace think and think and think, no matter how much they try to avoid it.

"She was just an innocent girl", Ace murmurs, voicing both their thoughts.

"Doesn't matter" Ryan says, keeping his voice very still and unwavering. "We did what we had to do."

But he knows neither of them are all too sure about that.

 

The next few times go by in a blur of their own.

**Author's Note:**

> Ryan - Ace - grey wolf
> 
> will add relevant daemon names and species (if settled) as they appear as to not confuse ppl
> 
> if anyone is confused abt the au setting... well that sucks for u and im very sorry. go read His Dark Materials


End file.
